Find Girl Scout cookies with your smartphone

Love Girl Scout cookies but don't know any Girl Scouts?

Let your smartphone, tablet, or laptop guide you to these tasty seasonal treats.

We tried two apps and a website that will help you quickly find a convenient Girl Scout cookie sale near your home or office so that you can stock up on Thin Mints, Samoas, and Tagalongs. Here's how the apps work.

Girl Scout Cookie Finder app

We first tried the free Girl Scout Cookie Finder app for iOS and Android that's designed for the Girl Scouts of the USA. The iOS version worked perfectly, but the Android version had glitches.

Cookie Finder uses GPS to show you the nearest places to buy Girl Scout cookies. You can search by distance and then see your destination on a map. Girls Scout cookie season varies by region, so you also can search by date.

The app will even add a location to your calendar to remind you to go pick up some cookies when they're available. Cookie Finder all but guarantees you'll find your way to several boxes.

If you can get the Android version of this app to work, it will show you a list of nearby places to buy cookies. We had trouble, but the iOS app worked perfectly.

Additional features include instructions on how to buy cookies, tips for interacting with Girl Scouts, and drool-worthy pictures and descriptions of the cookies available.

The Girl Scout Cookie Finder app also provides videos about the Scouts and does a nice job showing the value of these cookies beyond indulging your sweet tooth: The Scouts learn valuable business and interpersonal life skills from participating in cookie sales.

Though this app's functions performed well with iOS-based hardware, we didn't have much luck using it on our Android phones.

That version's GPS failed to recognize our location in San Francisco, and could not pinpoint any of the ongoing cookie sales in the area. It also froze quite a bit.

The app's development team confirmed the problems and said they are working on a solution.

Girl Scout Cookie Locator app

The Girl Scout Cookie Locator app, also free, is provided by the folks who bake the cookies for the Scouts. It was very simple to use and worked well for both our iOS and Android users.

This app offers you the option of looking for sales via GPS near a specific zip code or just by pressing the Find Cookies Nearby button. The options include Today, This Weekend, Next 7 Days, or All cookie sales, so odds are good you'll satisfy your craving in a timely fashion.

The Locator app will also notify you, by your choice of either email or text, when there is a Girl Scout Cookie booth sale in your area. Additionally, it includes some nice videos on Girl Scouting that show you what the cookie money is used for and how it helps the Scouts.

For fun, you also can ask Locator to describe your 'Cookie Personality'. For instance, if you love Thin Mints, the app says you are 'popular, strong, and confident.' Those who prefer Samoas are 'brainy, complex and mysterious,' and so forth through the entire cookie roster.

You can socially share these deep thoughts via Facebook, Gmail, or Twitter from within the app, but note the message sent really is mostly information on how to get the app. But hey, the more cookies purchased, the better off the Scouts are (or so you can tell your conscience).

Cookie Season webpage

Finally, if you just want a very quick hit of cookie info, go to the Cookie Season page on the Girl Scouts of the USA website and type in your zip code. If Scouts are still selling cookies in your area, this will quickly generate a list of locations and the distance from you to the locations.

The Cookie Season page on the Girl Scouts' website will show you a list of troops conducting nearby cookie sales or show you a map of where those sales are taking place.

Note: The money from cookie sales goes to fund the Girl Scout organization at every level, including a fun outing of some kind for each participating troop.

The Scouts in the troop decide if they want to go camping, on a field trip, or any other outing they can dream up that their leader approves. Calories for a good cause!